Therefore consider carefully how you listen.
Luke 8:18 (ESV)
I’ve been listening for His voice again. You know the one. The incomparable quiet and persistent voice of God who will reveal the next piece of the giant puzzle of life—the piece that settles my heart and calms my soul—while I am navigating the crossroads of yet another transition.
I remember hearing His Voice on the youthful edge of my womanhood. Like a perfect gentleman, He introduced Himself to me and then spoke to me about my unique value to Him. He clearly guided me to follow the dream He placed in my heart to move to California when I was 18 years old.
Over the years, we have conversed many times. Writers do that. Why write if there is nothing exceptional to say? For writers content is everything and the source must be first-rate! I enjoy searching out nuances of wisdom in the common events of life—and He willingly gives me the wisdom I am seeking.
But discerning the direction of big things takes much more patient listening. An earthquake is a fitting simile for my own inner turbulence. Huge tectonic plates displaced deep in the earth shift with great force, causing violent upheavals on the surface. These shifts can cause great damage. Yet, physicists point out, they also release fresh new life into the ocean and the atmosphere. Between the plates, new material wells up from the inside and replenishes the surface of the earth. These inner upheavals of change and transition are surprising and painful, but they also release new creativity.
Recently His voice reminded me again that I have always loved community—working with the worship team for women’s ministries at Scottsdale Bible Church, facilitating the Women of Substance enrichment hour, mentoring through Prickly Perspectives, Inc., and the Women’s Center at Phoenix Seminary. Nurturing community remains an unshaken purpose at my core. Now I am hearing Him say, My dear child, I am entrusting yet another community to your nurturing care on Thursday evenings! Notice them, value them, pay attention to them! Keep on loving, keep on caring. Do it again—for Me!